User blog:TenguTengu/Victoria's Jouney
Character Profile Originally one of those who continued to secretly hunt down the remnants from the thousand year war, even from before the revival of the demons. Until now she has been working alone and assume that to be the natural way of life. However, upon meeting with the prince, she felt a sense of happiness for now she has gained new comrades. A cool beauty that rarely let her emotions surface, though recently she has been changing little by little. Table of Contents Volume 1 Chapter 1 The Once Verdant Town Chapter 2 Blessings of Aigis Chapter 3 Clash with the Hidden Sniper* Chapter 4 Rival Valkyries Chapter 5 A Kingdom in Turmoil* 'Volume 1' Chapter 1 The Once Verdant Town “All set”, I whisper to myself, slinging my quiver onto my waist belt. I open up the partition of the caravan I am staying in, and step out into the brisk morning air. I take a quick breath, and hear someone else nimbly step onto the ground behind me. I turn around to see Dan, an acquaintance of mine. “Hey, Victoria, can’t you stay with the rest of us, at least until we pass this town? My sister still wants to learn more from you, and the crew like you a lo--” “No can do. Business as always, you know.” I force a smile on my face. Dan grimaces a bit, but he stops. I know he’s worried about me, but it’s honestly no big deal. The group of monsters here shouldn’t be too particularly dangerous, even by his standards. I sigh, and gesture back to the caravans, ”Head on back already. You guys need to get moving if you want to reach the city by nightfall. We’ll meet again when fate feels like it”. “Yeah, I guess. Stay safe.”, and although he looks a bit depressed, he turns around to the caravans. Close enough, I congratulate myself as I turn the opposite direction. I don’t usually end on such a high note. I walk into the forest, until the sounds of people being smacked awake faded away into the trees. It’s going to be a while before the town comes into view I think to myself as I pick through the tree branches and fallen leaves strewn across the ground. Apparently, a group of monsters have taken over a town in this forest and have erected a barrier so that no traveler could pass on the roads to and from the town. There have been no word from the townspeople ever since the monsters began their occupation, so many travelers are worried about the townsfolk. ---- ---- The town seems barren as I eye the town from afar. Is there anyone in the town anymore? I can see the monsters patrolling the streets. Many buildings seem to be in disrepair, but the few that remain standing are adorned with heavy locks. Those locks are a good sign, I suppose. They are probably keeping their prisoners in there. I don’t want to think about what they are doing to their prisoners, though. I scan the town from my perch for the leaders of the gang. There should be a magician and a goblin king amongst them. Tough enemies, to be sure, but nothing I haven’t dealt with before. I spot the two inside town hall, sitting across from each other, probably talking about their next move. I would like to attack them right now, but the town hall is guarded to the brim with goblin sentries and archers. They’re too guarded right now, I decided, peeling an apple with my knife, attacking at before dawn would be better. I sit back into the secluded crook of the tree and observe the workings of the goblins until nightfall. ---- ---- Once the cast of night has fallen on the earth, I creep towards the lodging of the two leaders- a crumbling temple adorned with blood and torches. The mage should be closer to the heart of the temple, probably resting his mana. I’d have to find a way to sneak in if I wanted to kill the mage before morning. Although there are several sentries posted around the temple and the town, I don’t have any trouble closing the gap. I stick my distance, though, because I don’t want to risk alerting a guard or any of the leaders to my presence. I carefully scale the structure I am next to, a formerly ornate manor that may have once belonged to a lord or a duke, hugging close to the surface in order to avoid attention. Once on top of the manor, I begin to carefully inspect the temple. The front entrance is too well guarded, I decide, I’ll need another way to get in. I look around the building, but the area is too well guarded to enter in easily no matter how I think about it. Then, I see a small broken window near the side of the temple, the cracked shards glistening in the dim torchlight. There are only a few guards guarding it, and they don’t seem to be coordinating well with each other. Perfect, I think to myself as I shuffle around to get a better shot of the window. Once positioned, I pull out my bow and carefully mark the positions of the sentries I need to take out. Slowly but surely, I pull the drawstring back to its full length. I take a long breath to steady my aim, and with a flick of my wrist, I let loose an arrow at the first guard. Fwish! The arrowhead finds its mark and sinks into his skull. The sentry collapses into the ground without so much as a whimper. The other guards don’t seem to notice that one of their comrades has fallen yet. Good, good, I think to myself as I take down another sentry. One by one, the other guards fall down to the ground, leaving a nice gap through which I can sneak into the building undetected. I crawl to the edge of the rooftop, and hop back into the alleyway. I land silently on the ground, and sling my bow across my back. “Huh?! An Intruder?!”, a grating voice yelps behind me, causing me to jolt in fright. I spin around to see a lone goblin sentry holding a spear, looking just as frightened and scared. Curses! I scream silently in my head. As the goblin begins to open his mouth, presumably to alert his companions, my instincts take control. I tackle him hard, knocking him down into the ground. “Wait, please do--” the goblin almost screams before I grip his neck in between my hands, hoping to crush his windpipe before any of the other sentries notice. The goblin’s struggling, but I can feel his neck creaking under my grip. I reach backwards with one hand to grab my knife. The goblin sees what I’m doing, and starts to struggle even harder. No matter, I think as I slam the knife into the goblin’s chest. Blood gurgles out of the goblin’s throat, and he slumps onto the ground. That should do the trick, I think to myself as I lift myself from the goblin’s bloodied body. I look around to see whether there were any more soldiers in the vicinity. The path to the window is still open, which is more than I could hope for. Clinging to the wall, I begin to creep towards the window without alerting the other guards. The torches mark the position of the other sentries, so I walk around the other sentries. The less conflict I have outside, the less trouble I will have taking down their leaders. I pause momentarily outside of the window, scanning the room for any more sentries or enemies. Thankfully the room seems to be empty except for a few scrolls, texts, and a map. I hop over the window ledge, the smell of the papers and mortars of the floor filling my lungs. I walk over to the map. So the room where the mage should be is… on my right. I should be able to get there fast I make a note to myself as I burn the image of the map in my mind. “Huh?! What happene-- Men, we’ve got an intruder on our hands! Killed 5 of our sentries over here!” The sound of distant goblins breaks my concentration. They found the bodies already? Knew I should have found some place to hide them! I know where the mage should be, so I waste no time backing away from the map. I notch my arrow onto the bowstring, and dash outside of the room. No longer preoccupied with trying to keep silent, my footsteps reverberate across the short hallway to the room. It’s barred by a door, so it would appear my guess was spot on. I bash the door open and raise my bow at the mage. The mage is standing in front of a operations table. “Wha--”, the mage shouts, disgruntled by my entrance. He turns around, raising his staff as if to cast a spell. “Haah!”, I lower my aim and release my arrow into his rotten heart. Fwish! The arrow drags the heart out and pins it onto the opposite wall, still beating even as the putrid blood gushes out of the wound. “Guuh… ”, the mage gasps as he grasps his chest, collapsing into a heap on the ground. The mage twitches a couple times, then lays still. “There, that should do the trick”, I say, breathing a sigh of relief. I approach the operations table, carefully sidestepping around the limp corpse. The girl doesn’t acknowledge my presence as I hover over her, staring blankly upward. In fact, if she wasn’t breathing, she would look more like a corpse than a human. “Is she brain dead or something? What kind of things were they doing to her?” “Talented folk are a waste to lose”, a sinister voice replies from behind me. I turn around and fire an arrow at him, but he raises his greatsword to block it. He continues, “The daughter of the guard captain. She was troublesome, going so far as to try and kill me with her father’s sword. A fine young girl like her is sure to fetch a high price in any market, especially one as talented and innocent as her.. Ping! The arrow bounces harmlessly off the sword as the goblin king advances forward. “So we planned to break her mind, make her a slave to our will. That’s all you humans are good for”, the king starts walking angrily towards me, dragging the sword behind him. “Well, that was the plan until YOU showed up and interrupted it! Just think about all the time wasted! Now I have to find another mage to continue the process! All because of you!” The goblin king charges at me, lifting his greatsword into the air. I nimbly sidestep the blade as it comes crashing down into the earth, cracking the bricks underneath. This is a problem, I think to myself, That sword is not going to be easy to get through. I don’t think I have enough acid to break the sword, and I don't have any bombs either. I’ll probably have to use magic if I want to land a hit on him. How disgusting. I sigh to myself. I fire another arrow at the goblin king, but to no avail. Crack! “Come on, there’s no way I’m going to let you get a hit on me with that, missy!” he taunts, smugly positioning himself for another strike. Crash! Screech! Clang! I take a hop backwards, putting quite a bit of distance between me and the goblin king. He stands there, not even taking a move to attack me. How overconfident he is. I’ll make sure to fix that. I notch another arrow into my bow, pulling back the drawstring to its full length. I calm my breath, and I begin to chant words of power, “prosdósei dýnami sto vélos mou”. Energy begins to coalesce around my arrow, making it shimmer ever so slightly in the torchlight. The goblin king begins to notice what I’m doing, and frowns. “I don’t know what you are doing, but do you honestly think I’d let you do that!” He dashes forward at me, raising his sword. But not fast enough. I release the fletching of the arrow from my grasp. It streaks across the room, whistling as it goes. He raises his sword to try and deflect my arrow. They meet with a resounding screech, and sparks fill the room. Unlike the last time, the arrow burrows through his sword, his armor, and his body, throwing his body backwards onto the ground. The goblin king lays there, unmoving. I stand there for a second before sheathing my bow. I’m quite tired, but I walk over to the prisoner, and try to shake her awake. “Hey, are you okay ma’am?” There is no response from her. I sigh. Even if she wasn’t broken, I don’t know if she’ll ever recover from what they’ve done to her. Footsteps outside of the room alert me to the presence of a great many people. But rather than the sound of a goblin horde, it seems to be-- “Oh hello Victori- ugh, what happened in this room? It looks absolutely horrible”, Crave remarks, stepping into my view along with many more kingdom soldiers. Since they are here, I would assume that they have dealt with most of the goblins outside. “I took care of the ringleaders. You guys were a bit slow, as usual”, I remark, pointing to the girl on the table, “Take care of the girl, if you please. She needs treatment and some time to recover.” “What happened to her?”, Crave asks me, staring at the limp girl on the table. “They were trying to break in her mind. I don’t know how successful they were. You got some healers on your side. Get them to fix her up. I’m going to take a nap”, I declare as I walk past Crave. He looks like he wants to ask more but we know each other. He directs some of his men to follow him to treat the girl as I leave the vicinity. I leave the room mentally drained, like lead blocks are weighing down my brain. That’s one more threat neutralized. I think the dragon at… Chapter 1 End. Category:Blog posts